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2026: General Discussion

Dave said:
I know it was rumoured but I don’t think either was a traveling models.
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I believe the difference between "park" and "traveling" in those days was: Traveling models had two huge water tank towers either side of the support arms to weigh them down, whereas park models took them off (along with the wheel bogies on the chassis), and had giant rebar "staples" holding them in to poured concrete footers.
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I believe the difference between "park" and "traveling" in those days was: Traveling models had two huge water tank towers either side of the support arms to weigh them down, whereas park models took them off (along with the wheel bogies on the chassis), and had giant rebar "staples" holding them in to poured concrete footers.
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To be fair if any company in the 90’s was going to make their traveling models as bulletproof as the park models it’s Huss. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if the motors were different as well.

However the rest (KMG etc) definitely have park models and fair models that are very different.
 
The woes of Alton Towers opening weekends has managed to make national news. In their article on Minecraft World, the BBC asked Merlin about the issues:
Merlin has faced complaints from customers about issues such as queues and ride closures at its recent Alton Towers opening weekend.

Jobson said it was still planning investment in its other parks and the company "wasn't pulling money just to put it into Minecraft".
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Interesting use of the word 'just', there.
 
Playing devil's advocate, how much more do we think Merlin got in Fastrack sales compared to if everything was running? Given that one shots for the main coasters are £20, it won't take long to add up.
 
Happy to be proven wrong if but I believe there wasn’t the light show on the towers yesterday. Anyone know if it returned today? Walked past the towers a few times after dark without seeing it and was not advertised on the app.
 
I saw (what I think was) the first show on Friday at 6.45, though I never checked the app for showtimes so I can't comment on how well it was advertised. Either way it had drawn quite an audience, though the later showing at 7.15 was notably quieter - I was just passing through for that one
 
DanJB said:
Love the new signs that have been put up along the footpath from the car park to the entrance all along the lines of:


I almost admire the balls it takes to spin the inconvenience they’ve caused as ‘hey you could do with the exercise’
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I think that sounds like quite a fun touch! It’ll certainly make that walk a bit more interesting!
 
DanJB said:
Love the new signs that have been put up along the footpath from the car park to the entrance all along the lines of:


I almost admire the balls it takes to spin the inconvenience they’ve caused as ‘hey you could do with the exercise’
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They were putting them up on Friday afternoon when I was walking into the park.
 
DanJB said:
Love the new signs that have been put up along the footpath from the car park to the entrance all along the lines of:


I almost admire the balls it takes to spin the inconvenience they’ve caused as ‘hey you could do with the exercise’
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I hope they've also added more lighting along that route, after I went flying over a rock I didn't see in the pitch black when walking back to the car after last year's Scarefest 😬🤦‍♂️
 
DanJB said:
Love the new signs that have been put up along the footpath from the car park to the entrance all along the lines of:


I almost admire the balls it takes to spin the inconvenience they’ve caused as ‘hey you could do with the exercise’
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Got to keep sticking signs on everything somehow…

No risk walking next to traffic?

They don’t feel the need to stick a 7ft high fence around it or do cars not count as moving vehicles?

You have to laugh…
 
Secret Weapon said:
Does anybody else think that there should be a bigger variety of staff outfits at Alton Towers?

The Smiler staff have their own distinct uniforms, and so do the Forbidden Valley staff and Curse staff, but should:-

- Mutiny Bay staff dress as pirates

- Project Horizon and/or Galactica dress as astronauts

- Katanga Canyon staff dress as safari explorers

- Thirteen and Wicker Man staff dress as druids

- Rita staff dress as... I don't know what the theme is

(Honourable mention goes to: Ug-Land staff dressing as cavemen - although some of them looked like they may have unintentionally done this anyway, to be honest)
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With wickerman they already dress to look... haggard.
 
AT86 said:
‘VIP’ experiences look to be available now for 2026. Nemesis and Hex behind the scenes are back, along with track walks for Oblivion and Wickerman.

No sign of the garden and towers tours though.

www.altontowers.com

VIP Experiences | Alton Towers Resort

Gear up for an exclusive VIP experience at Alton Towers Resort
www.altontowers.com www.altontowers.com
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Because why would they use tours of their heritage assets, when they could charge you a fortune to walk up a wooden or metal staircase.
Okay being serious, I imagine the take-up on the garden and towers walks were low, but they were poorly advertised. If I were them I would offer them more, and push them more, during the off season. Allow older visitors, and those less interested in the theme park to come see the old house and gardens for a fee. Would be extra cash for Merlin, turn towers into a closer to year round attraction and make better use of their heritage assets.
 
I'm an advocate for finding a way for more people to get better access to the heritage assets of the place, but admittedly it is a bit tricky. The older age-groups you'd usually expect to attract would mainly want to visit in the months when the theme park is open because the weather is milder. Even if you went down the involved process of meeting a group at the gates and escorting them around the tours and then shepherding them back out of the entrance, it's not ideally what people would want. They'd really want to spend at least half a day there being able to relax and probably have something to eat or drink and have a look around at their own pace, and then maybe have a guided tour on top at set times.

The only way you'd be able to do that would be to maybe close the theme park for one day of the week almost every week apart from school holidays etc where Towers definitely wouldn't want to give up the theme park trade. Random occasional Tuesdays? That might work, but they don't seem to actually have that many really quiet days anymore like they did going back a number of years.

So what we've had for the past couple of years with the tours is that you're mainly getting people who are already pass-holders and can afford to take a couple of hours out of one of their several visits a year. Then once you've exhausted many of those pass-holders who want to go on the tours, the numbers maybe start dwindling and it gets to the point that it's not worth Towers employing the staff member or two to lead those tours. It just becomes another bit of admin and expenditure for not much in return on the balance sheet (or negative on some tours), something that's not too appealing for upper management I would have thought. I went on probably the last tour of last season and there was only me, a couple of teens and the guy doing the tour (Craig, I think). I expect they were much more full earlier on in the season.

It's definitely a tricky one. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has any ideas? Ideally they'd do something with the house to make a free-flow walkthrough with some kind of security to deter vandalism and ensure that daft people don't put themselves at any risk.
 
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